Roasted Red Pepper Pasta with Kale and Feta

Two days, 849 posts, 58,864 comments, 315 categories, two superdedicatedwebsite developers, and one slightly crazed website develop-ee later (ahem, that would be me)…and I think I can safely say WE MADE IT!

It was quite an epic journey to be sure, but Melissa and Erin were fearless captains (and I was curled up in a corner in fetal position just waiting for it to be over…but that’s neither here nor there). And really when we started, I’m not sure that I could have even imagined that it would be this pretty and FUNCTIONAL. And yet here we are.

So come, let me show you around.

First of all, I love how clean it feels! My old site was getting pretty cluttered but it had been that way for so long that attempting to clean it up just seemed so…daunting. But then, as with all moves, you find yourself doing quite a bit of introspection. Asking, “Do I really need that badge on my sidebar?” and out it goes. Just like that. Spring cleaning in July. Better late than never!

Next. The Recipe Index. Which, honestly, is my favorite part of the whole thing. Now, it is still a work in progress because I haven’t finished updating all the featured image photos so that it knows which picture to display for each recipe, but the fact that there are even pictures at all and not just an endless string of recipe titles is kind of blowing my mind. And, it updates itself. I was always months behind on updating my old recipe index, so this fact is kind of a gold mine in and of itself.

On the right sidebar, there will be a constantly changing rotation of seasonal recipes so that you will hopefully get some inspiration whenever you stop by and under each recipe, there will be a mini (auto-generated) round-up of related recipes so that if you’re in the mood for pasta but maybe not this pasta, you still might find something you’re looking for.

I’ll also be partnering with Ziplist to share my recipes and also to make it easier for all of you to save them all in one place. What is Ziplist you ask? Basically it’s a service that you can use for recipe saving and meal planning. The whole thing is free, so all you’d need to do is sign up and click that little “save recipe” icon under my post heading. Then, when you’re deciding what to make for the week, all you’ll have to do is add the recipe to your meal plan and it will generate a shopping list for you that you can then arrange by aisle of the grocery store, or however you’d like. In addition, they also have various grocery deals that you can take advantage of…so it just might be worth checking out if you haven’t already!

But have no fear! You can always share/save my recipes in the usual social media outlets and now it’s even easier to do so because of all the cute sharing buttons at the bottom of each post. Winning.

Spaghetti is tossed with a richly flavorful roasted red pepper sauce, along with kale and feta, to make for a Mediterranean-infused comfort-filled dinner.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

3 red bell peppers

8 oz spaghetti

1 bunch kale, de-stemmed and coarsely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

½ cup pecans, coarsely chopped

½ tsp kosher salt

½ tsp red pepper flakes

2 cloves garlic, chopped

4 oz crumbled feta

Instructions

Heat oven to 450. Place the peppers on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast for an hour, turning every fifteen minutes, or until all of the sides of the peppers are charred and bubbling. Transfer roasted peppers to a bowl, cover, and let rest for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Place a strainer in the sink and add the kale to it. When the pasta is done cooking, reserve ½ cup of the pasta water, and then pour the pasta and remaining cooking water into the strainer so that the hot water cooks the kale. Return kale and pasta to the pot.

Peel the skins off the peppers and throw out. Deseed the peppers and coarsely chop them. Place in a food processor along with the olive oil, pecans, salt, red pepper flakes, and garlic. Process until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the sauce to the kale and pasta and toss to coat, stirring in pasta water as needed until sauce is the right consistency. Mix in the feta cheese and serve.

I am so in love with your new design Joanne! It’s beyond gorgeous, and I’m totally swooning over the recipe index. Thanks for giving me a little push to get going on this myself 🙂 Oh, and the pasta looks delicious too.

Lovely. I especially like the tagline “Mostly ridiculous…” It looks like your recipe index needs a little work. I’m pretty sure breakfast is filed under soup and I definitely saw a chocolate cake filed under salad. Good luck with the fine tuning… while I go off and bake a cake and tell my husband it’s salad. He’ll believe me!

Joanne – love love your new website design! It’s so clean and just pretty to look at! Great job! That recipe index is wonderful with the pics! And this dish…roasted red pepper sauce over spaghetti looks and sounds delicious. I want some!

YES! I LOVE your new site! It looks so beautiful and clean and everything else one wants in a blog. Congrats lady- and that pasta looks amazing as well. I was craving pasta at 1 AM last night and would have loved a special delivery of this 🙂

LOVE THE SITE!!!!! So pretty and easy to navigate 🙂 It must have been so nice to be able to sit back and let someone else do the switch- so much less stress! Oh my gosh a recipe index that updates itself? I need to learn how to do that. And this spaghetti looks awesome. a perfect way to kick off your new site! 🙂

The new look is fantastic Joanne. Someday I will move over to WordPress but as you mentioned the thought is daunting. Maybe after my daughters shower, my nieces wedding, paying my taxes, and my trip to Wenatchee..wink. In the meantime I know I would enjoy this pasta.

We are pasta twins today. I love this one, Joanne. The whole flavor combination is right up my alley. And I ADORE the new design…for all the reasons your mentioned. It’s clean, classy and the colors are gorgeous!

Oh WOW! Joanne, your new site looks A-Mazing! I can imagine it was stressful and nerve-wracking and crazy for a while, but the results are oh-so worth it. I can’t wait to explore (starting with this awesome pasta with kale recipe 🙂 ). Congrats on a gorgeous site!

I love, love, love the new design! I feel the same way about my blog — so tired of the clutter. The clean look is gorgeous and inviting. And I seriously need a self-updating recipe index. Such a great idea! Oh yeah… that pasta looks awesome!

Congratulations on the new look! It’s great and I know what you mean by clean….so nice. I will have to try the Ziplist. Right now I just save what I like on Pinterest but I like the idea of the grocery list it gives you. The pasta? So tasty looking like all your recipes!

Wow that is exciting. I had to peek around your new home before even reading this post because I was so curious – the recipe index looks great – have you deleted any recipes or are you keeping them all? Your blog has gone such a long way since you started and it looks great. Love the dish too but honestly I feel like I was tasting it just looking around the room admiringly. Not every day you have major renovations – but it seems very you!

Not exaggerating one bit when I say that I love, love, LOVE the new design. Seriously, it’s what I wish my blog looked like… And the fact that it’s so functional and user-friendly is the icing on the blog cake. Someday, when the pain of the move has faded a bit, I’d love to pick your brain about the logistics… I’m still dreading making such a big leap of faith and changing things around, too.

Love the new look! For some reason your updates aren’t showing up in my reader, but I think I fixed it. I thought it was weird you hadn’t posted in a while, so I’m glad I decided to visit. 🙂 We made this pasta and it was a big hit with us too.